Bought a Nunn Finer bridle on sale. Ad (and the Nunn Finer site) said this bridle is made of “Italian leather.” However, the tag on the bridle says “India.”
So - what does this mean? Leather from Italy but sewn in India? Or a total scam???
TIA!
Italian leather is leather made in Italy. That leather can be shipped elsewhere (ie: India) to be assembled into whatever product.
More info if you are interested in more background on Italian leather: https://www.meridioband.com/what-is-italian-leather-10-things-you-should-know/
According to this link, Italian Leather is a vegetable tanning process perfected in Tuscany, but can be actually made anywhere in the world. Including I assume India.
My understanding is that cowhide from hotter countries tends to be thinner than from cooler countries, or maybe the breeds of cattle differ.
Ah yes, my bad there. It is a specific process (lengthy lengthy vegetable tanning process)… can be not specifically made in Italy, but usually it is. Argentina is another popular location it is made. I wouldn’t personally trust a Made In China “Italian” leather and tend not to trust most mass produced products from there (not just leather) that I need to perform well over time, but wouldn’t worry about what you’ve got. Nunn Finer has a good reputation for making quality products.
The irony of course is that both India and China have amazing artisanal craft traditions, though not particularly in leather or horse gear. But there is stuff they traditionally make like fabrics that are just stunning.
All of this ability is ignored when factories go in to mass produce cheap junk for an international market.
1 Like
It is very very hard to find a bridle that isn’t made in India anymore, fwiw. Even some of the very high end ones are imported fine leather and assembled there. On the flip side, there are some excellent knock offs coming out of India also. So if you ever want to try a Micklem, anatomic Dy’on, PS of Sweden Nirak style etc, they are good for a dry run for usually less than $100.
Off the top of my head, Vespucci is also assembled in India of European leather. Apparently it costs less to send European leather to be finished in India than to assemble it in Europe.
There is apparently some credence to higher latitude leather being nicer than that sourced from closer to the equator. Cattle in colder climates have smaller pores (less sweat), so the leather is denser. Hotter climate, larger pores, less durable leather.
This is a neat blurb regarding Indian leather and leatherwork: https://www.reynaequestrian.co.nz/blog/is-that-english-or-indian-leather/
2 Likes
Dy’on also ships European leather to India, where they have their own factory. They also contract out to many (many!) high-end saddle brands, who don’t want or need to take the time to design their own bridle line.
Manufacturing strap goods in Europe is very expensive. A lot of bridlemaking knowledge was passed from Britain to India in the 1900s and so India has a history & workforce of highly skilled leather artisans, which is increasingly difficult to find in the EU and certainly in the US.
Yes, I keep forgetting about the British/India connection for so many centuries, despite having just unearthed a volume of Rudyard Kipling from my childhood :). It makes sense that the extensive British governance and military presence in India up to the 1940s would have made local sourcing and manufacture of horse gear at least a niche industry. And the British were at the top of the game in horse tack in the 1800s & early 1900s!
1 Like
Wow, really? Where can I find those? I’d love to find quality knock offs like that! :yes:
Interesting that leather products are made in India, where cattle are sacred …
OTOH the leather could have come from Hereford cattle that were never in Hereford, or Aberdeen Angus cattle that never were in Aberdeen …
Ko
I did a fast Google and cow slaughter is allowed in a few Indian states, presumably ones without a large Hindu population.
Then I went down a big internet rabbit hole on how polarizing cows and cow slaughter are in sectional politics in India even today. But perhaps if you ran a leather factory with hides already sourced you could get over that problem. Moslems don’t have a beef ban so maybe you could set up shop in Pakistan?
I’m starting to feel a bit under informed on India! We have a substantial and long established Sikh community here and also more recently getting a cohort of international students, Sikhs and Hindus, but I’ve never been there, or given it a lot of thought. I know much more about China, Hong Kong, Vietnam.
Maybe I’ve got a summer reading project right there.
Then got distracted thinking about a world where horses were sacred and wandered down the streets and never went to slaughter. Kind of like Chincoteague Island, I guess.
Unfortunately the city where most leather goods factories are located is also the most polluted city in the world (at least according to the WHO) so there is a human and environmental cost to all this.
And it’s in Pakistan, so my guess was right (do your leather work in a Moslem not a Hindu country).
Modern industrial production carried on in countries with less developed infrastructure and regulations is always a huge mess environmentally.
North America and Europe had pollution on a comparable level until we improved infrastructure, tightened regulations, but most importantly out sourced most of our manufacturing to other continents. The goal was cheap labor but the side effect was reducing pollution at home.
London in the early 20th century had smog like Beijing today. The US had major toxic waste sites. Etc. Horrible sweat shop working conditions.
I don’t know what conclusion to draw from all this though.
Kicking the envronmental can down down the road? Not a problem if you can’t see or smell it, sorry…no tree hugger but have been in many 3rd world countries and seen and smelled it. We are naive over here.
1 Like
Yup. I guess my point was, things were like that over here not so long ago. And it’s factories for and from the developed world setting up overseas. These are our corporations. It’s something we have created to shore up our standard of living.
While we sit and pat ourselves on the back over our progress cleaning up the planet…least the part we can see and smell. I got no answers.
